Each day, the City of Wilmington’s Water Treatment Plant produces around 2 million gallons of water for some 12,500 people in the city and immediate area. To keep up with demand two reservoirs were constructed with a capacity of 450 million gallons.
Presented Issue
Both reservoirs, historically, had Green and Blue Green algae. Cylindrospermopsis & Microcystis were main Blue- Green algae of concern, both may be toxic if left untreated. Previously, the City of Wilmington had attempted to remediate the algae through a series of copper sulphate treatments, both costly and labor intensive.
Our Solution
Our water quality experts partnered with the City of Wilmington and determined an ultrasonic transducer would have positive change on the current challenges they faced. In May 2018, we installed a SolaRaft Quattro-DB unit in reservoir one and the city continued the use of copper sulfate on reservoir 2 as a control.
The Results
“The reservoir with the ultrasonic unit is certainly clearer than it has been historically, and it has an overall lower cyanobacteria count. It could be that it’s just less effective on the benthic species. Last year’s cylindrospermopsin level peaked at 1.0 ug/l in September, about seven times higher than the result found last week. At this point, I’m hopeful that the unit keeps it from getting that high.” – Rick Schaefer